John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerAn exterior shot of Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Glen Gardner. A federal judge in Newark today heard arguments over whether potential witnesses were being intimidated in a lawsuit aimed at giving psychiatric patients a judicial hearing before being forced to take drugs.

NEWARK — A federal lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to give patients at psychiatric hospitals access to a judicial hearing before being forced to take psychotropic drugs took a turn today when lawyers argued over whether hospital staff were intimidating patient-witnesses by threatening not to discharge them if they helped push the lawsuit.

In court papers and during a 3 1/2-hour hearing that began Tuesday, lawyers for Disability Rights New Jersey asked U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise for a protective order restricting the state’s agents and employees from discussing the case with patients and/or retaliating against them for being involved as witnesses.

But after listening to testimony from witnesses on both sides, Debevoise seemed dubious about DRNJ’s request for a blanket no-discussion rule.

"I’m yet to be convinced that the subject has to totally be out of bounds," he said.

If a patient raises the lawsuit to a staff member, the judge said, it might be necessary to discuss it in order to properly treat the psychiatric patient.

Debevoise also questioned how practical it would be for a staff member to stop a conversation and run to court for a case-by-case ruling on whether it could be discussed in that instance.

Debevoise did not rule on the motion seeking the protective order. Instead, he said he’d consider it and rule next week, at the start of a hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit on judicial hearings for patients fighting orders to take drugs.

Michael Reisman, a lawyer representing the advocacy organization, told the court that a patient at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, referred to by the initials, "A.R.," had told a DRNJ staff member on numerous occasions this year that hospital staff had made it clear to him that "he would be better off if he hadn’t sued his treating doctor."

What’s more, Reisman said, "A.R." phoned DRNJ coordinator Louan C. Lukens and told her he no longer wanted to be a witness in the lawsuit because he’d become convinced doctors would keep him confined longer.

"(A.R.) told me many times that staff told him his discharge would be held up if he continued," Lukens, who testified Tuesday, said outside the courtroom.

A.R. did not appear in court.

But two Greystone physicians and a staff social worker testified today and denied making threats against "A.R." They also said he had a long history of mental illness, including schizophrenic and violent tendencies, and an extensive criminal history.

They also testified "A.R." was the one who kept raising the spector of the lawsuit, forcing them to largely ignore comments flying at them from the patient.

"He spoke to me about it, I told him I didn’t want to be involved," the social worker, Denise Davis, said.